ADF Dedicant Path: Progress Update

(aside: I’m writing this post on my phone and claim no responsibility for what it does with my spelling etc.)

I’ll still be posting DP stuff, but it won’t be in the exact 52 week order presented in the handy companion manual I was following. I’ll probably remove week numbers from previous posts to satisfy my need for uniformity.

As some of you may recall, I began the dedicant path not for ADF recognition, but because I needed a beginner’s guide to getting my act together spiritually. I get stressed looking at too much information at once which leads me not to do anything at – which is how my pagan practices had been more or less after leaving Wicca.

Now I have a pretty decent basic routine going, but school is keeping me from regular ADF work.

My focus right now is on building relationships with the Kindred. I am doing so partially via my own methods and partially per ADF-style methods. I will continue to document my High Day rites, but other ADF posts will occur as I get around to the lessons in the guidebook in my own time.

Random UPG – so I said before that I’m Loki-friendly but not Lokean (yet??). But if it makes any difference – He’s been creeping around eyeing my coffee, waiting semi-impatiently for me to acknowledge him. We’ll see Loki, we’ll see. If you could just hang tight over there and don’t touch anything, that’d be great. Thx.

Hello new person! I usually say hi to new followers or look at their blogs right away but, yikes, my post about Seb got me a thousand and one notifications yesterday and I lost track of everyone 😮 Anyway, always glad to hear from other Aspies 🙂

So I was about to say I’m avoiding Loki because I don’t have room for that kind of smartassery in my life – but then I realize that I actually have a vacancy. My brother used to fill that roll and he has been quite concerned about how to do his job when not living near me. It’s been so nice, come to think of it. Haha. I’ll probably be the only one around here thinking of Loki like a brother rather than hot stuff :p and speaking of sweets. They already go missing. And cheese. The cheese always disappears. It’s really weird!

As someone who follows Loki pretty closely, I can say that he has a tendency to show up in really weird ways, and he is incredibly persistent. Chances are, if he’s hanging around, he’ll worm his way in somehow. And Loki is more of a best-friend/brother-esque type for me.

On a different note, I think it’s pretty cool that you are drawn to Mani (and I’m pretty sure I’m combining what I read in multiple posts here) and night Gods in general. I think it will be interesting to see where that path takes you.

I’ve been really waffling about formally acknowledging Loki. I’m still new to heathenry and I hear such conflicting information about him, but he’s definitely poking around. As for the night deities (yea that was a different post 😉 ), I’m feeling uncertain there too since most people don’t have particularly close relationships with Nott, though it seems Mani has been getting more attention than usual these days. Nonetheless I am told that they aren’t the sort to be particularly involved in people’s lives the way other deities are, so I am a little confused about my current interactions with them overpowering communication with others. I’m just going to go with it for now though.

Loki is a contrary God by nature – what I have learned with Him is that you really get what you expect. He loves to put on a show for people, so the people who approach Him fearfully tend to only ever see His world-breaker aspect. Since I approach Him with humor and love (familial), I tend to get Him in his prankster mode, and His pranks are small little things like borrowing my socks or causing mishaps with vending machines.

As for Mani and the other night deities who have approached you, if they have approached you, then there is something within you that appeals to those deities.

There are a lot of people out there who will say that the Gods are never drawn to individuals, but that hasn’t been my experience (and I think those who say it are secretly jealous of those of us who do have personal interactions with the Gods).

If Mani has been the one approaching you, then it’s a good bet that you are uniquely suited to walking His path. What that path may be is largely dependent on his personality and your understanding of Him.

As a note…over the years, I’ve learned not to put too much stock in what other people have to say about the Gods that approach me or the way that I honor my Gods. In the end, faith is a very personal experience, and the path you walk comes down to the relationship you share with the God/s you share it with.

Very wise words. thank you! I suppose my problem isn’t so much trusting my own UPG but feeling vulnerable sharing it with the public when it doesn’t fit the mold. I know I don’t have to share anything, and I hardly share everything, but I have benefitted from other’s shared UPG and I like to believe others can benefit from mine too. Thanks again for the advice, and about Loki too. (^^)

It can definitely be difficult to share UPG with the world at large, especially when there are so many people out there willing to jump in and start yelling about how faith shouldn’t be based on UPGs.

Granted, these are also the same people who won’t consider the fact that before there was written lore, the only thing that people had to go off of WAS UPG, but that’s logic for you.

As for the advice, no problem. Feel free to ask me questions if you ever need to do so – I can say that my approach to spirituality is very unique, and the reason for that stems from the belief I have always held that all paths through life are valid ones.